ARTSBEAT; Debate on Gay Marriage Roils Superman Project

By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES

Published: March 7, 2013

“Adventures of Superman,” a digital anthology from DC Comics, is scheduled to begin on April 29. But it will not feature the work of Chris Sprouse, an artist who has decided to drop out of the project because of a controversy surrounding the opposition to gay marriage by the novelist Orson Scott Card, one of the writers.

Mr. Sprouse’s resignation, which came on Tuesday, followed weeks of growing consternation by some fans and retailers after the announcement from DC in early February that included Mr. Card among the creative teams. In a statement provided by DC Comics, Mr. Sprouse said: “It took a lot of thought to come to this conclusion, but I’ve decided to step back as the artist on this story. The media surrounding this story reached the point where it took away from the actual work, and that’s something I wasn’t comfortable with.”

Mr. Card is a board member of the National Organization for Marriage, a nonprofit group with a “mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it.” According to its Web site the organization was founded in 2007 “in response to the growing need for an organized opposition to same-sex marriage in state legislatures.”

The story by Mr. Card, written with Aaron Johnston, was to appear in the first issue but will now be appear at later. An online petition calling for DC to remove him from the book has more than 16,000 signers. Comics Alliance has a series of interviews with retailers, including one who will not offer the book when it becomes available in print and another who will donate proceeds to the Human Rights Campaign.

In a statement, DC Comics said, “As content creators we steadfastly support freedom of expression, however the personal views of individuals associated with DC Comics are just that — personal views — and not those of the company itself.”

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.